Galliford Try expects bumper year

Firm says it expects to exceed analysts’ expectations with pre-tax proft of £92m

Galliford Try has forecast that its pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June 2014 will exceed analysts’ expectations and top £92m.

In a statement to the City this morning, Galliford Try chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said that the firm would exceed the analysts’ consensus for the year to 30 June 2014, which forecasts the firm will report pre-tax profit of £89.7m, and would report a pre-tax profit of “not less than” £92m.

Fitzgerald said: “The group has made strong progress since the start of the year particularly in housebuilding where market conditions continue to improve.”

He added: “Our margin enhancement programme is also progressing on plan, and the [Linden Homes] division has made further progress at the operating margin level.”

The firm reported it had achieved record house sales with £1bn reserved, contracted or completed across both its Galliford Try and Linden Homes businesses.

It also said Galliford Try’s construction business had improved its order book to £1.3bn, up from £1.25bn at the end of 2013.

Fitzgerald said the construction division was “winning work with appropriate margin and inflation protection” and that it continued its “focus on risk management and cash, which have been robust in the period [1 Jan 2014 to 13 May 2014]”.

He said: “All of our businesses, in common with the industry, continue to experience challenging production conditions, with supply of both labour and materials constrained by strong demand; however these conditions are stabilising and we continue to manage them proactively.”

However, he said he expected the firm’s debt on 30 June to be bigger than at the same point last year “reflecting planned higher investment in land” in Galliford Try’s housing business.